Uncontrolled bleeding of external wounds is a common problem resulting in death after injuries. In particular, haemorrhage after combat injuries is a leading cause of mortality of the soldiers on the battlefield. According to the Armed Forces Medical Examiner Service Mortality Surveillance Division, 90.9% of the potentially survivable battlefield fatalities that occurred in the pre-medical treatment facility environment during the Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom between October 2001 and June 2011 were associated with haemorrhage. Thus, the necessity of onsite acute mitigation or termination of the haemorrhage in the prehospital environment is undisputed.
Commonly, the acute way to treat bleeding external wounds consists of the application of pressure dressings directly onto the injured soft tissue to mitigate, or, rarely to terminate the acute bleeding of the burst vessels, especially arteries. The pressure dressings are, however, inadequate and inflexible to adapt sufficiently to the specific wound cavity and in addition often insufficient to stop bleeding due to the difficulties to hold the dressings in the wound. Moreover, the frequent necessity of repeated change of the wound dressing increases the risk for infection, which aggravates the scenario.
US2012/0209232 A1 describes a haemostatic composition comprising a plurality of liquid-expandable articles of absorbent material disposed on a backing material. When delivered into the wound, the liquid-expandable articles are adapted to expand upon contact with a liquid, for example blood, thereby to fill the wound cavity and control the haemorrhage. Means for the controlled removal of the expanded articles at the hospital prior to any surgical intervention are not specified, where uncontrolled removal of the ensemble of the expanded articles and the clotted blood could lead to additional damages in the wound. In addition, the accessibility of every sector of the wound cavity in cases of deep and narrow wound shapes remains unspecified.